Maximise Your Profits the Queen Elizabeth Way

August 1, 2007

Would you like to treble the amount you make on each sale? If so, you’d do far worse than to use Queen Elizabeth as a role model. One of the easiest ways to increase your profit margins is to offer customers additional products or services at the initial sale. The Queen does this remarkably well, on the Buckingham Palace tours she offers, so I’m going to use her as an example of how to successfully maximise each sale.

Buckingham Palace is open to the public during the summer, and tickets to visit the nineteen wonderful staterooms are priced at: Â£15.00 each. Right at the point of the first ticket sale, the Queen makes extra money through add ons. For example, an official guidebook is an additional Â£4.95, then there are ticket options to see even more of Buckingham Palace. For an additional Â£8.00 per adult, you can also see the Queen’s Gallery and a tour of the Royal Mews costs Â£7.00 extra per adult. Then Queen Elizabeth has cleverly packaged all three ticket options into one big ticket for Â£27.00, which is a saving of Â£3 on buying each one seperately and only an additional Â£12.00 more than the original Â£15.00 ticket for the state rooms. Can you see how all these extras quickly add up?

Many people will buy the Â£27.00 ticket, and most people buy the guidebook for Â£4.95. So instead of making only Â£15.00 per customer on ticket sales to see the staterooms, the use of clever add ons has earned Â£31.95 per person. That’s more than double the initial price. But there’s more. As you’ll see in a moment, the Queen has added even more opportunities to extract the maximum out of her customers, during their visit.

At the end of the state room tour, you are offered the opportunity to take a walk through some of the Buckingham Palace gardens completely free of charge. Who could resist an offer like that? It’s not everyday you get to wander the same paths Her Majesty uses to walk the corgis. So what’s the catch? Well, when you exit the palace, you’d be forgiven for thinking you were in Walt Disney World. Bang in the middle of the pathway at the beginning of the walk is a large, tent-like shop. When we visited, the shop was absolutely mobbed. So mobbed in fact, that we couldn’t get in. There are some cheaper souvenirs in there and also some more expensive stuff. I’ve made a conservative estimate of an additional Â£15.00 spend per person here. This brings the total sales so far to Â£46.95.

After this, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the Queen could not extract another penny from her customers, but a short walk from the shop is an icecream stand. Who could resist the chance to sample some Royal icecream? I think this was roughly Â£2.75 for a small pot, bringing the total sales per person up to a princely Â£49.70. After seeing the icecream stall, I had to wonder whether we’ll soon be seeing Royal icecream vans whizzing round the country to the tune of the national anthem.

I think this is a pretty impressive example of the power of add on sales. With a little creative thinking, Queen Elizabeth has managed to turn a Â£15.00 ticket into Â£49.70. That’s more than treble what she would have got, if she hadn’t introduced any add ons.

Plus, in true Disney fashion, those that really enjoyed their visit, can get an unlimited edition pass which lasts for a whole year. I’m not sure of the price, but you can bet they’re not going for a song.

I hope this has been a useful example of the power of add on sales, and helped you to see how you could supercharge your profits. The good news is, you don’t have to own Buckingham Palace to do this. With some creative thinking, you’re sure to be able to come up with some great add ons for your business, whether it’s an internet business, or an offline business. Think carefully, can the products or services which you sell be carefully packaged, so that the price for buying a more expensive one appeals more to your customers? What additional products or services would be appealing to your customers?

Share and Enjoy: